Ideawake, a Milwaukee based provider of cloud-based management software, announced this summer that it raised $780k in funding.
The company’s most recent round of $780,000 (according to Pitchbook), in the second quarter, continues its strong fundraising efforts. Current funders include BrightStar Wisconsin, a state-wide funding source for funding early stage companies as a mechanism to create local economic development. In addition to BrightStar Wisconsin, Ideawake is part of the gener8tor family of companies.
Ideawake believes that the most disruptive innovations can come from the most unlikely of places. According to their website, ideas are the pulse of every innovative organization, but since they are dispersed over geography and departments, these ideas are oftentimes difficult to capture, evaluate, and put into action. Ideawake’s crowdsourcing software makes it easier to surface and implement ideas from both inside and outside organizational boundaries.
How does it work? Start by posting a new challenge topic on Ideawake. An example of a challenge topic to post on Ideawake includes: “How can we increase sales by 5% by the end of Q4 2019?” Next, the user can target specific groups within the company, organization, or world to which pose the challenge topic . Once the post goes live, invited users will receive a notification via email and may begin posting and collaborating on ideas in real time.
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After ideas have been shared, Ideawake’s software will then review the results and automatically filter and surface the top five percent of ideas that will drive 95% of new business results. This grants the user the ability to review only ideas with the highest potential.
Furthermore, to incentivize engagement, Ideawake’s software is built in with a gamification system. This system was built to reward participants with points. These points are accessible on the company leaderboard and administrators can give out prizes of their choosing during and after the challenge ends.
Lastly, Ideawake’s software gives management access to analytics. This enables management to make data-driven decisions by tracking challenge engagement, activity, and the forecasted ROI generated by all ideas collected on each challenge post.
Ideawake was founded in 2013 by co-founders Coby Skonord, Tim Elfelt, and Trae Tessmann. Coby Skonord, Chief Executive Officer of Ideawake, attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where he received a degree in accounting and finance. Tim Elfelt, Chief Technology Officer of Ideawake, attended Saint Louis University where he received a degree in business administration. Trae Tessmann, Chief Technology Officer of Ideawake, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a degree in business administration and management.
Ideawake is working to help businesses and organizations identify new opportunities, deliver them to market faster than the competition, all while continually improving efficiency and giving employees a voice.
For more information, please visit: https://ideawake.com/product/
